Canadian Interiors March April 2021

CDN $8.95 MARCH APRIL 2021

Welcome to Resimercial

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Arriscraft Thin Stone

Elevate every space.

Our fabulous thin product selection lets you add premium stone on virtually any project. Easy-to-install, lightweight and low maintenance, our unique stone features natural aesthetics like none other on the market.

Incredibly beautiful and durable, Arriscraft Thin Stone works perfectly for feature walls or as a primary wall covering for busy commercial spaces. Discover our full range of styles, finishes and colours.

Request a catalogue today: solutions@arriscraft.com

arriscraft.com |

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March | April 2021 / V58 #2

Senior Publisher

Martin Spreer

416-441-2085 x108 Editor in Chief

Peter Sobchak Art Director

Roy Gaiot Contributors

Richard Beaumont, Steve Symons Online Editor

Christiane Beya Customer Service / Production

Laura Moffatt

416-441-2085 x104 Circulation Manager

circulation@canadianinteriors.com

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President of iQ Business Media Inc.

Alex Papanou

Canadian Interiors magazine is published by iQ Business Media Inc. 101 Duncan Mill Road, Suite 302 Toronto ON M3B 1Z3 Telephone 416-441-2085 e-mail: info@canadianinteriors.com website: www.canadianinteriors.com Canadian Interiors publishes six issues, plus a source guide, per year. Printed in Canada. The content of this publication is the property of Canadian Interiors and cannot be reproduced without permission from the publisher.

Subscription rates > Canada $38.95 per year (plus taxes) U.S.A. $71.95 USD per year, Overseas $98.95 USD per year.

Back issues > Back copies are available for $15 for delivery in Canada, $20 USD for delivery in U.S.A. and $30 USD overseas.

Please send payment to: Canadian Interiors, 101 Duncan Mill Road, Suite 302 Toronto ON M3B 1Z3 or order online www.canadianinteriors.com For subscription and back issues inquiries please call 416-441-2085 x104 e-mail: circulation@canadianinteriors.com, or go to our website at: www.canadianinteriors.com

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Canadian Interiors is indexed in the Canadian Magazine Index by Micromedia ProQuest Company, Toronto (www.micromedia.com) and National Archive Publishing Company, Ann Arbor, Michigan (www.napubco.com).

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Features

03/042021

19 IN FROM THE COLD Edit Studios creates an environment of comfort and warmth that retains modern workplace functionality. By Peter Sobchak

24 FUTURE WAYS OF HYBRID WORKING Remote work is here to stay, but that does not mean office life is dead yet. By Steve Symons

28 HITTING TARGETS In conversation with Jane Abernethy, Chief Sustainability Officer at Humanscale, about material and supply chain transparency and COVID-19’s impact on furniture waste. By Peter Sobchak

32 REAPPROACHING THE WORKPLACE Optimizing spaces base on changing employee needs. By Darby Gracey

34 LOST OPPORTUNITIES The growing F-waste issue and how to handle it. By Richard Beaumont

Regulars

08 CAUGHT OUR EYE 11 THE GOODS Even after re-opening, workplace solution

designers will still need products to help tackle issues such as sound management and physical support; plus, ceiling and wall compositions that will tease your geometric and surface senses.

36 OVER & OUT Jamie Wolfond opens himself up in a new programming idea by DesignTO. COVER – Designed by Edit Studios, a new private equity office mixes French country comfort with the sophistication of a modern Parisian office. Photo by Ema Peter Photography.

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com Welcome to our new podcast series, where we step away from the photographs and talk with interesting folks about interesting ideas and issues facing the design world today. Available now for listen or download on our website as well as a variety of streaming platforms, including

Quai 5160

Episode 6 Social Design w/ Michael Kaethler

Les Architectes FABG converts the Guy-Gagnon Arena into a new Cultural Centre for the borough of Verdun, Québec.

Fun House Atelier RZLBD’s new residential project discovers a playful coexistence with its surrounding trapezoidal site and its local residents.

Episode 7 Material & Process Transparency w/ Jane Abernethy

Joe Fresh Flagship For the new Joe Fresh flagship store in Toronto, Burdifilek tapped into the brand’s youthful, fashion-forward atmosphere.

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D o o lu ED IGI ur sive IT TA IO L N

Cottage Design Principles from A to Z

Optimizing Spaces Based on Changing Employee Needs

Drawing on commissions ranging from modest cottage bungalows to sprawling estates, +VG principal Peter Berton lays out his essential cottage design principles.

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Visit the expanded digital edition at

www.canadianinteriors.com

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inside

What’s to Come Hasn’t Come Yet

We’ve reached the one-year mark of the pandemic. It feels a lot longer. Everyone is tired of the isolation, and now that vaccines are in the picture there is frayed patience with (or outright pressure on) government officials to give the green light so that things can “return to normal.” But what does that even mean? And what will we be returning to when doors are re-opened? The truth is: no one really knows. Not all real estate sectors were affected equally by the pandemic; some like industrial and logistics, life sciences and data centres actually thrived, while office, retail and hotels were so brutalized many wonder if a return to “old normal” pre-COVID conditions is even possible.

An example of this is Altus Group’s recent Key Assumptions Survey of 115 Canadian CRE executives from pension funds, publicly traded REITs, private companies, and brokerages to gain insights on the impacts of COVID-19 on the retail and office sectors. As far as the latter, certain sentiments are expected to remain well into 2021, such

as more concerns now about WFH becoming permanent (or hybrid) resulting in 10 to 20 per cent space downsizing (maybe more in 2022); no clear consensus on whether downtown or suburban locations will be preferred post-COVID, but a pessimistic outlook for lower quality office assets, regardless of location (but worse for downtown); increasing availability (direct but especially sub-lease) leading to more leasing incentives to maintain face rates, flight to quality (less but better space), flexible lease terms, and sub-lease opportunities continuing to flood the market.

Only when workers safely return to the office will we begin to see physical transformations that reflect a change in expectation of workplace culture, coupled with the inevitable impact of long-term remote working. Those transformations are yet to come, as evidenced by the normally robust number of office project “reveals” I get from designers reduced to a trickle in 2020. But changes are coming. “Most employees want to work in a more balanced way and as they return to the office, they will desire flexibility and choice,” say the authors of CBRE’s 2021 Canada Real Estate Market Outlook Report. “Employers seeking to come out ahead in the race for talent will need to build trust and offer choice.” Which means while the physical office will remain a part of a future workforce network, designers will need to get clever in figuring out what “hybrid” should look like.

07 Peter Sobchak

psobchak@canadianinteriors.com

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS! 24th Best of Canada Awards, the only national design competition in Canada to focus on interior design projects and products without regard to size, budget or location!

All winners will be published in the July/August issue of Canadian Interiors.

Submission Deadline: Thursday, May 6th at 11.59 p.m.

www.canadianinteriors.com/BoC

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caught our eye DesignTO - Distanced and Digital edition

Work/Life Produced in partnership with Umbra, this annual exhibit showcases prototype work of Canadian design studios. Eight were featured in this (eerily apt) edition including Plural Creative and their Peacock Chair, which wraps a removable felt shroud around a lounge chair to create a sound dampening personal space.

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Sketch, Sample, Sew

by Amanda McCavour Part of the Site Alive Winter Edition exhibit at Harbourfront Centre, McCavour tapped into 10 years of embroideries exploring geometric, botanical and household motifs, printed them on hundreds of pieces of fabric cut into irregular shapes and then displayed them as both a window installation and an outdoor collage among the treetops.

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Image courtesy of Zherui Wang

Master and Apprentice by Donald Evans Evans examines this fading relationship by repurposing two chairs freed from a Canadian government Department of Finance office. One painted silver, the other weathered and wrapped in wire (by an actual apprentice), is a juxtaposition meant to highlight the underlying structure of the relationship: money.

Volatile Ecologies: Architectural Apparatuses for Earthly Survival Conceptually ambitious, this exhibit used various prototyped products (for example this air filtrating wearable) as both speculative solutions and proxies for a larger debate about the politics of humanity’s environmental degradation, specifically referencing the industrial waterfront of Buffalo, New York.

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the goods

Compiled by Peter Sobchak Cube & Solo | Loop Phone Booths Designed and manufactured in Edmonton by Onetwosix Design Agency, both pieces exude a minim­alist and refined northern aesthetic that tow the line between furniture and architecture. Designed for easy installation, each Cube booth consists of three modules assembled on site and feature warm, hardwood exterior and brightly coloured interiors, while the Solo (shown) uses a hardwood frame paired with durable laminate exterior sides and a soft grey interior. www.loopphonebooths.com

T7 Arm | Allseating This new adjustable ergonomic arm’s name reflects the seven unique, isolatable movements the arm provides which includes a 360-degree pivot as well as forward, backward, up, down, in, and out motions in order to support the muscular system when properly adjusted to a user’s body, including specific characteristics such as their arm length and dominant hand, and is available on the You, Levo, Inertia, and Chiroform task chairs. www.allseating.com

Edge of Your Zone Offices aren’t going away, and neither are many of the issues workplace solution designers were tackling even before the pandemic, such as sound management and physical support.

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the goods

TalkZone | Spec Furniture A fully customizable product, right down to the carpet selection, laminates for the exterior, neutral or bold colour choices for interior acoustic panels, even the handle placement (right or left side, ideal for space planning). Integrated air vent systems, power connections, and bar height laptop table come standard, made more comfortable with the optional upholstered PostUp stool. www.specfurniture.com Tono | Inspec Designed by Danish company Hans Thyge & Co and developed for the contract market as a multi-functional chair for a meeting room, waiting rooms or social spaces, this sound absorbing armchair made from recycled PET bottles is available in a four-legged steel tube frame and a four-legged solid wood frame. www.sandlerseating.com

Focus | Allsteel + Zilenzio The American maker of office solutions and Swedish maker of sound absorption solutions have joined forces to combat acoustic challenges in modern workplaces. The results are extensive. Among the many lines released is the Focus, a collection of flexible privacy screens that can easily be folded and stored close by after use, perfect for activity-based offices.

Floor and table versions are available, plus a Pod (shown) with integrated seat and table. www.allsteeloffice.com CANADIAN INTERIORS 3/4 2021

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Wayfinding LVT | Mannington Commercial The company has dipped into its wide range of LVT product experience to now offer floor wayfinding suitable for the times. Icons include a variety of arrows in different colours and shapes, plus six standard icons and three standard plank messages: “Please Wait Here,” “Practice Social Distancing” and “Please Wait on the Line.” Customized messages, sizes, background/foreground colours are available. www.manningtoncommercial.com Skate | Sitland Tapping into the concept of active seating, drawing specifically from a skateboarder’s freedom of movement, this sinuous new task chair comes with a slender backrest that acts in three dimensions similar to the truck of a skateboard, two movement systems integrated in the structure (both patent pending), and a large seat that can accommodate people of any size. www.mig.it

BuzziNest | BuzziSpace Designed to act as a freestanding, soundproofed room within a room, the collection comes in two models: BuzziNest Booth (at 1.2-sq.-m) and BuzziNest Pod (3-sq.m), that can be customized with three frame colours, over 90 fabrics and felts for its main structure, built-in air ventilation and an LED lighting system, both powered by motion sensor. www.buzzispace.com

New industry standard for sound insulation Until recently, there wasn’t a suitable way to measure the level of sound insulation of enclosed spaces such as acoustic pods.

In June 2020, a new international ISO 23351-1 standard was accepted that is specifically designed to measure speech sound level attenuation for office furniture ensembles, including semi-open and closed pods. It produces a single figure called speech level reduction (DS,A) that describes the degree of speech privacy the product being tested provides. The new standard will place all manufacturers on the same footing and will put an end to a lack of accuracy in sound proofing numbers previously declared by brands before the new standard was released.

For more about the ISO 23351-1 testing method visit www.iso.org

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the goods

Sides On

All

These ceiling and wall compositions will tease your geometric and surface senses with myriad installation options.

Compiled by Peter Sobchak

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Interior Film | Bodaq This self-adhesive, stretchable, high-quality finishing material is ideal for refreshing a variety of surfaces including walls, ceilings and furniture both flat and curved. An extensive catalog carries a selection of patterns and textures that precisely imitate natural materials.

Nelcos Distribution is the official North American representative of Hyundai L&C Corporation, which manufacturers the architectural film. www.bodaq.com / www.nelcos.com

DecoMetal expansion | Formica Canada The Québec company’s popular laminate line has been expanded to include 13 new metal visuals of warm tones of brass, copper, light gold and black. The new designs are presented in five series (Rolled Steel, Patina, Polished, Brushed and Stainless) and include a new pattern, called Copper Veil (shown). Popular with designers because they work well in spaces that require warmth and a touch of class, DecoMetal laminates are for vertical use, lightweight and easy to install and maintain. www.formica.com/2021specialty

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DESIGNFlex Ceiling Systems | Armstrong Ceiling & Wall Solutions An impressive scope of offerings means designers can reinvent ceilings by mixing and matching different panel shapes, sizes, colours, and materials in minimum orders as small as one carton. The buffet of options includes smooth-textured Calla and Lyra plant-based panels, fine-textured Ultima and Optima, smooth-textured MetalWorks, real wood veneer WoodWorks panels and Formations Acoustical Clouds. All these products are available in new shapes, including triangles, parallelograms, and trapezoids, in addition to standard squares and rectangles. www.armstrongceilings.com/designflex

WOOD-SKIN | Carnegie In a move that signals a departure from textiles, Carnegie has partnered with innovative WOOD-SKIN and will be the sole North American distributor of the Italian manufacturer’s Mesh Sheets, Fold Panels, and Tailor-Made paneling products, which utilize a direct file-to-machine process that tessellates the surface of a 3D model, generating its precise unfolded geometries onto sheets of rigid composite material.

Once machined, each sheet is then connected through a textile core to recreate the exact configur­ ation of the digital design without the use of heavy and expensive structures. www.carnegiefabrics.com

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the goods

Wood-Inspired Collection | Turf Design This Chicago-based manufacturer of custom acoustic solutions has introduced a new collection of finishes for ceiling baffles aiming to bring the outdoors inside. Now available on many of their designs, the release consists of eight organic, wood-inspired textures, digitally printing on 9mm felt (itself 60 per cent pre-consumer PET) in unique, realistic grains with extensive colour and grain matching options yet with little room for duplications. https://turf.design/

Bronze Collection | GKD Metal Fabrics The company’s complete portfolio of rigid/PC metal fabrics is now available in bronze, with similar technical properties as stainless steel but a completely different aesthetic for commercial exteriors and interiors. With an option for clear coating, specifiers can choose to keep the warm bronze tone for years to come or allow the panels to achieve the natural patina indicative of the material. www.gkdmetalfabrics.com

Design Studio Tile | Unika Vaev Inspired by the success of its self-adhesive e3 Tile Collection, four new shapes have been added; Brick, Hexagon, Triangle and Waves. Designed with a 12mm thick solid colour core in 11 colourways, the tiles are recyclable, emit no VOCs, have an NRC rating of .40 and can be applied on almost any wall substrate. www.unikavaev.com

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FLOOR ENLITE ™ AWAKEN EL61 WALL ENLITE ™ NIRVANA EL63 WALL INSERT ENLITE ™ RANDOM LINEAR MOSAIC NIRVANA EL63

MAKE A STATEMENT. As the world-class leader in Tile, Natural Stone & Countertops, Daltile offers the largest assortment of high-style solutions to elevate any space or design. ©2021 Daltile

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Bodaq Interior Film Quick and Easy Surface Refinishing

Use Bodaq for all your design needs bodaq.com info@bodaq.com

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450+ patterns

to choose from Wood, Stone & Marble, Metal, Fabric, Leather 2021-03-17 2:47 PM

In from the cold By Pe

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From soft draperies to cozy chairs and reading lamps, Edit Studios creates an environment of comfort and warmth that retains modern workplace functionality.

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A common narrative these days is how COVID-19 put a stop to so many design projects that, while well on their way to executing a beautiful space, were conceived under pre-pandemic expectations that are now considered problematic, resulting in countless “returns to the drawing board.” While true for many office projects, it is not the only narrative. In fact, there are a few creatives that had a design solution in mind even before the pandemic hit, and while lockdowns certainly caused workflow disruptions, it further crystallized a design approach ideal to post-pandemic return to work.

BlueArck, it was clear that the founder is committed to a culture of balance, not only between work and life but also in the composition of his team,” says Janay Koldingnes, founder of Edit Studios.

Upon immediately entering the space, one is met with a reception area that feels more like a living room. Nearby, a modern bar is outfitted with all the comforts of the home highlighted by book-matched black and white marble with gold accents. Hidden doors masked behind intricate moldings hide the inner workings of the office and soft draperies provide a way for staff to share spaces that can be easily cordoned off for privacy. Molding and wainscoting accent the walls, while modern furniture pieces, rich marbles, and traditional French light fixtures juxtapose old with new.

Such is the case for a new office expansion of BlueArck Private Equity, located in Vancouver’s landmark Marine Building. Working closely with the firm’s managing partner, Aleem Ahamed, the team at Vancouver-based Edit Studios adopted an aesthetic that dispensed with conservative design tropes generally associated with wealth management firms in favour of a modern and welcoming approach that mixes French provincial comfort with the sophistication of a modern Parisian office: conventional dark woods and leather chesterfields were jettisoned in favour of a light, airy palette of herringbone floors and luxurious drapery.

This move towards a warmer atmosphere reflects a deliberate choice intended to create an environment that attracts a more equal mix of females into the profession. “From my first conversation with CANADIAN INTERIORS 3/4 2021

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“Our design community has been influenced in many ways by Silicon Valley, adapting the idea that the office needs to be everything to everyone. The goal: keep employees on campus and working as much as possible,” says Koldingnes. “There was a period where bunkbeds or cabin cubbies were a staple in offices for employees to take a nap. There is a balance that needs to be struck between offering amenities and perks that make employees’ lives easier versus turning the office into a funhouse that can lead to distractions and burn out for staff in the long run.” At BlueArck, it was important that the office feel like a home – “a place to congregate, break bread,

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Janay Koldingnes on making “resimercial” work Sometimes you walk into a space and while new, it seems bland and stark. This is usually because the majority of pieces have been purchased from one vendor or store. We feel the best way to create a residential feel is to mix styles and textures:

— Keeping the open industrial ceilings while balancing this with refined elegant herringbone floors; — Our boardroom has vintage-looking Restoration Hardware chairs (I was not originally a fan of them until I saw how they warmed everything up), while in the next space we have clean metallic furniture from Andreu World; — Selecting different layers of lighting to offer different settings for different occasions. There is not one bright cool LED or fluorescent in BlueArck’s space. It is mostly floor lamps, warm pendants and wall sconces which tend to shed a softer light; — Gold accents are mixed with clean white metal fronts for the offices. Don’t be afraid to use gold with chrome or black.

Opposite page, top left & above The 5,000-sq.-ft. space has private offices, an open lounge, meeting room, eatery and kitchen, a full bar and a private powder room. Warm herringbone floors from Kentwood Floors add richness, and soft draperies from Maharam provide a way for staff to share spaces that can be easily cordoned off for privacy. Furniture selection is a mix of modern pieces from Inform Interiors and Herman Miller with transitional pieces from Restoration Hardware. Left Inspired by hidden passageways in an old French château, the office’s inner workings are tucked behind hidden doors that are masked by intricate mouldings.

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This page The modern bar is outfitted with all the comforts of home highlighted by book-matched black and white marble slabs from Julian Tile. The overall office space is illuminated with soft and layered lighting from Flos and Rich Brilliant Willing, with statement lighting from French industrial designer, Serge Mouille, and French inspired fixtures by Louis Poulsen.

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and talk” – but not attempt to be a substitute for it. “While [Ahamed] was spending capital to create an amazing environment for his staff, he was also clear that he did not want people staying until all hours of the night,” says Koldingnes. “Work hard, get it done during the day, and get home to your family. I personally think most companies should adopt this mentality for the long game.”

Although the design team was armed with a clear and solid plan for the new office, lockdown disruptions still created many hurdles. FaceTime, 3D scanning and other video conferencing for meetings and site visits, and even socially distanced “garden gatherings” to show samples, became the weapons of choice. Replacement products were sourced from local suppliers to fill gaps made by international supply chain breaks, for example engineered flooring from Kentwood Floors replaced alternatives from China, and porcelain slabs from Julian Tile replaced thin Italian veneer. “Originally, we were going to source all metal and glass

office front systems through Steelcase, which specializes in pre-order modular architectural walls [that] arrive as a kit of parts easily assembled onsite. Unfortunately, due to lead times we were forced to reevaluate,” says Koldingnes. “We partnered with local Aura Glazing, which implemented our ideas into a product where everything was sourced and produced by local trades. Even our custom metallic pulls were designed and installed through their shop. We were all very happy with the results and glad that we could shore up the local economy in any way we could during such a tumultuous time.”

Aesthetics melded with planning work together to make it easier for teams to come back to work, as the space is set up for everyone to have their own office and mask policies will be in effect in the common areas. Overall, the pandemic reinforced not only the concept but also a commitment to creating a space where staff feel comfortable joining or transitioning back too.

Janay Koldingnes on the permit process How difficult was it to navigate the City’s partially digitized permitting process? Did it make things easier or more cumbersome?

Shifting the Building Permit process online made the City of Vancouver revamp their systems to meet the demands of the 21st century. They allowed developers and design teams to submit their drawings electronically for the first time. Unfortunately, they still require stamped and sealed physical copies to be provided later in the process but at least it is a step in the right direction. We hope that through his experiment, the City will see the benefits to moving online and will transition the rest of their submission process in this direction. Currently, the City of Toronto has an online option that allows most of the building permit submission process to be completely digital. Electronic seals have become the standard which is great to see. The City now allows what used to be in-person meetings to be conducted virtually, which is a huge relief for most. These virtual meetings are allowing stakeholders and consultants from all over the country to attend without having to board a plane. This can save thousands of dollars in air travel, accommodation, and expenses.

Often considered one of the more headache-inducing parts of the design process is navigating the permit protocols. How did the lockdowns in Vancouver affect that part of your work on this project?

We submit many permits each year through the City of Vancouver and have come to know what to expect of the process.

When COVID hit, we were concerned about how this would affect the permitting process for our jobs that were underway, including BlueArck. We assumed we’d need to add another two to four weeks on to the processing time for the permit. Normally you can expect a Tenant Improvement permit to be issued within a six- to eight-week time frame if you’re lucky. Surprisingly, we received our permit in four weeks which is unheard of.

The Building Permit application process was conducted digitally for our submission in the height of spring 2020’s COVID lockdown, but we were still required to drop off physical documents in addition to the digital submission. It took some time for the City to get organized at first. Procedures were not clear, different instructions were given on different days. To be fair, things were changing so dramatically that this period of chaos was expected.

For example, I recall receiving an email from the City requesting the Building Permit Package be dropped off in a box in front of City Hall and they hoped that Phil, the onsite security guard, would be available to grab it! Not exactly the best plan, but a plan at least.

Over time, the instructions and procedures did get worked out and we believe the City has put itself in a great position to see even more improvement to the process. We worked alongside municipal plan checkers, administration, and inspection field reviewers to get our permit approved during these unprecedented times in record speed.

How important it is for Vancouver to complete its digitization of the entire permitting process, like Toronto and Edmonton have done?

Critically important! The City of Victoria has also completely switched to digital permitting. The City of Vancouver has made some headway in changing their process for the better, for example digital permit submission eliminates the need to line up at the City for what can be hours on end; all trade permits seem to have transitioned to online which again helps with removing an extra trip to the City for trades to pull their permits; and they allow virtual meetings to take place for Design Panel and Pre-Development meetings.

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Future Ways of Hybrid Working Remote work is here to stay, but that does not mean office life is dead yet.

Because of the pandemic, new working realities have sprung upon us, presenting the perfect opportunity for organizations, companies and employers to recalibrate and think about their next steps. To gain more insights into how and where people would like to work when the pandemic is over, we at BuzziSpace surveyed over 900 industry professionals and employees during our BuzziAcademy: Future Ways of Hybrid Working webinar series, held in November of 2020.

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By Steve Symons

In less than a year, remote working has become the new normal. This once slightly stigmatized way of working has indeed been embraced by many employers and companies around the world, albeit with the added hiccups that come along with it. As the majority of us remain working from home, it’s becoming clearer and clearer that businesses are still unsure of how they will continue to work in the future.

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According to our research, few employees want to return full-time, with 73 per cent wanting to spend 40 per cent or less time in the office. For those that do want to return to the office, the main reasons are so they can hold face-to-face meetings and in-person collaborations, in addition to breaking social isolation.

However, for many corporations, the future still looks unclear. From the aforementioned study, we see that 52 per cent of companies have not yet decided how they will work in the future; 26 per cent believe a combination of office and remote work will be the future of working; and 18 per cent feel no matter what they will need to return to the office full-time. But going back to the office doesn’t have to be an unpleasant experience. Drawing on data from our survey, office space solutions experts at BuzziSpace have envi-

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before after

sioned four potential hybrid ways of working that we could start to see in the workplace and how to cater to them.

may be smaller, you can still keep the company ethos intact by adding appropriate solutions that remain true to their aesthetics and brand.

The Destination Office

The Future-Proof Office

The purpose of this model is to move a workspace closer to where the employees and clients live and away from the city centres, which could mean reaching into the suburbs. One immediate upside is a general reduction in commuting time, which obviously very few people would miss.

For companies that need their workforce to return full time to the office, or even for part of the working week, future-proofing the workspace is the way to go. However, the last thing they should do is welcome employees back to a cold and sterile office filled with signs. To create a warm and welcoming environment for interaction and collaboration to occur, introduce sustainable solutions that not only comply with the current physical distancing protocols but will additionally retain their design value and health benefits for years to come.

One idea could be setting up shop in a former retail or hotel space – which would help with their current struggling economies – or utilizing more unique options such as an old greenhouse. Although these spaces

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The Trophy Office The Trophy Office places employees at the forefront and makes them feel heard and respected. For companies that will continue to allow the majority of their workforce to continue working remotely, the Trophy Office should be a place where employees want to visit to reconnect with one another, receive mentoring, or find inspiration away from home.

There are no boundaries when it comes to conceptualizing the ideal Trophy Office. To create an aspirational setting, incorporate “resimercial” products: a mix of residential elements with commercial features around the space. Or rotate fun, colourful furniture every few months. Most important, make sure there is enough light, for example adding an acoustic lighting solution will ensure there is enough light that also mitigates noise.

The Transitional Office There are several options embedded in this model. For example, if a large percentage of a workforce will continue to work from home, this will open a lot of space in the current office to either be used for hotdesking or to rent out to smaller businesses. Similar to the Future-Proof Office, it is important to form boundaries within the Transitional Office without being intrusive. Play around with exciting and bold design elements, such as biophilia, to create luscious micro-environments. Desk partitions and office dividers with built-in acoustic solutions ensure employees have both personal space and a collaborative atmosphere but with excessive noise and disruptive sounds under control.

With hybrid office environments here to stay, our solutions are geared to a spirit of working from anywhere. In order to create a customized happy and healthy workspace, it is imperative to take a variety of factors into account such as the market, business structure, the company’s ethos and aesthetics, as well as the personalities of staff members and company culture. But above all remember, the future of professional life cannot be defined by one simple all-in-one solution, as there is no single ideal workspace of the future.

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Steve Symons is the founder and CEO of BuzziSpace. Through his “Expect the Unexpected” design philosophy, Steve has steered BuzziSpace into becoming an internationally recognized and award-winning acoustics leader.

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S:8"

Make the most of small spaces.

The versatility of the Pact™ collection saves on space without sacrificing comfort.

S:9.875"

Designed by EOOS

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/ Made

by Keilhauer

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T:10.875"

© 2020 Keilhauer LTD.

By Peter Sobchak

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In conversation with Jane Abernethy, Chief Sustainability Officer at Humanscale, about material and supply chain transparency and COVID-19’s impact on furniture waste. manufacturer in that situation where they are legally required to put that chemical in but it is a Red List ingredient that will show up on the ILFI declare label, but it’ll be yellow because it’s an exception being made for that situation.

With a new President of the United States already signalling a recommitment to the Paris Climate Agreement, environmental issues are encouragingly back to the top of many design and manufacturing agendas. For some companies it always had been, as evidenced by the recently released Corporate Social Responsibility Report from Humanscale, one of the leading designers and manufacturers of high-performance workplace products with an aim of making a net-positive impact on the Earth, for example boasting a global waste diversion rate was 86.9 per cent in 2019. Their comprehensive programs include being a founding member of the NextWave Initiative, adding transparency labels to 84 per cent of all products, and the elimination of Red List chemicals such as using polyurethane instead of vinyl and abolishing the use of Chrome 6.

If you were an assassin but only had one bullet, which ingredient from the Red List would you eliminate completely? Meaning which one is doing the most damage?

It would probably not be a chemical. It might be more the mentality of “business as usual.” It is hard to pick out one type of chemical because there are so many ways in which they can play out: some are bad because they are so ubiquitous and found everywhere; some are just extremely toxic. Some build up in our bodies over time and can be quite harmful and some are a lot more acute. I’m not sure which priority to pick there.

Are offenders on the Red List the “bad guys” of the material chain that you can address, but are there others that are unfortunately just out of reach in an industrialized world? Meaning, are there other materials that should be prosecuted but are currently untouchable?

Okay then, if we shifted the focus and made it about the manufacturing process, what should be put in the crosshairs?

One thing that comes to mind is single-use plastic. While itself not inherently toxic, it is just used so often without a lot of thought as to what’s going to happen to it next. It’s not that all plastic is bad. It’s just that we don’t manage it well and so it just ends up being everywhere and getting into a lot of places where it shouldn’t be.

Not exactly, especially in North America. The Red List which we reference is the International Living Future Institute (ILFI) Red List, but there are several different authoritative lists that you could also look at: California’s Prop 65 or in Europe the Substances of Very High Concern List. There are different lists with a lot of commonalities, but they overlap imperfectly. Where they don’t overlap is where material scientists, toxicologists, industrial hygienists and other folks involved in pulling together the list may or may not agree one hundred per cent on every single topic, or they review the science differently or have slightly different values. But one thing I’ve not usually seen is having toxicologists ask manufacturers “Can you do this?” before they put it on a list. They’re usually looking at the effect on the human body or the ecosystem and then identifying those chemicals of high concern.

One exception is the Reach Regulation by the European Chemicals Agency that does reach back to industry and the way of regulating those substances of very high concern is done with feedback from industry. The substance may still end up on the list, but the way of regulating it is tempered a little bit. The Living Future Institute may make exceptions to the Red List and you would see those showing up on declare labels highlighted in yellow because an exception has been made. If the case is that the industry really cannot make that change it’ll still show up. One example might be window shades: certain code requirements require a certain level of flammability that can only be achieved with antimony. Then you have a

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Humanscale is one of dozens of commercial interior furniture companies (as a walk-through at NeoCon would attest), so while achieving the coveted Living Product Challenge Certification is admirable, if you are the only company doing it, what effect would it really have on the environment? What will it take to elevate the CSR of the entire industry?

This is a good question. The way I see it, when we can do something like publish thorough third-party verified transparency labels, we show that it can be done. While a high bar of sustainability, it sends a signal that this is possible to do. Where customers may have asked in the past for transparency and material ingredients and been told that this is not possible, that supply chains won’t allow it, that the industry isn’t set up like that, then Humanscale comes along and shows it is possible. Whether we’re in the room or not, it changes the conversation from “can you do it” to “please do it.”

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– there’s now one who has almost as many labels as we do – and it’s really been exciting to see that, and we were able to influence some of those conversations so that customers felt they could ask manufacturers for more, and manufacturers often do step up once they’re being asked to.

up. Everything is just seen as goods that need to leave and there isn’t that level of attention as when you’re trying to receive those goods.

There are several different groups who deal with this in better ways, like donate the material locally to not-for-profits, or find a way to recycle, depending on how municipalities recycle different materials.

Worst case is if anything is leftover it would end up going to landfill but at least you have the least amount of material going as possible.

We’ve been actively trying to make those connections and support folks in decommissioning spaces as much as possible. It means we’re not looking at our own product as an individual item but instead part of a larger system.

A lot of Humanscale’s efforts seem to be focused on improving the environmental effects of the material chain in production, such as removing Red List ingredients. But how circular are the efforts?

How involved is Humanscale in end-of-product-life scenarios, which addresses the issue of “F-waste,” or furniture waste? I remember hearing how stamping a collection phone number on the bottom of one of your chair lines didn’t work so well.

That was an interesting interaction. It made us take a step back and say, “Clearly there’s something we’re not understanding here.” If we just say “bring it back to us” that obviously doesn’t work. When you stop and look at the whole situation for just a moment, it seems clear that when somebody is setting up a space, they are co-ordinating with all the different manufacturers that they need to get those goods from, ordering the exact materials, checking with installers. But when someone is decommissioning a space, they don’t have a similar plan in place to leave the space with that same intensity as when it was set CANADIAN INTERIORS 3/4 2021

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With offices staying closed or downsizing around the country, the issue of F-waste is intensifying as it leaves tonnes of unused office furniture facing the prospect of going into landfills, costing millions and harming the environment in the process. How is Humanscale adjusting to the effects a post-COVID work environment may have on commercial furniture?

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I’ve been hearing from clients that although they are downsizing how many people are in the space by having folks work from home, I haven’t been hearing of them getting rid of furniture that they already have,

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This spread The Smart Ocean chair, launched in 2018, is an inventive adaptation of the Diffrient Smart chair that incorporates almost two pounds of fishing nets per chair. The nets are from Bureo’s Net Positiva recycling program, which facilitates the collection of discarded plastic nets that are then transformed into plastic pellets. The program provides incentives to participating coastal communities as well as helping eliminate the most harmful type of ocean plastic. Based on the success of this chair, Humanscale is planning to develop another product that leverages this design model for cleaner oceans.

partly because it’s still so uncertain that who knows what happens one year from now, maybe you will still need it. There’s still, it seems, enough uncertainty that people are not making drastic decisions.

The office in the next few years could be a very different thing. With people working from home and ordering in a more individual way then you could end up needing more packaging for deliveries and protecting products: if you deliver broken product then it’s immediately going to landfill and all of that is a waste of resources which is very unsustainable. We’ve been talking with our operations team about how to make sure we have the right sizes of boxes that are not much larger than they need to be, that have enough protection but not overkill. It does take a bit of a balancing act and I think something like that could end up being more impactful.

Another thing that comes to mind, wrapping this back to that initial part of the conversation, is that although people may not be thinking about the material ingredients going into the products, they are now in your home and of course with wear and tear particles get in the air and we ingest them and they do eventually affect our health. So I think when something is going into our home we may care a bit more about what ingredients are being used to make it, and want to have something that doesn’t have toxins in it that’s going to be around all the time.

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To hear the complete conversation, including a wider discussion on how issues such as ethical human labour fit into the equation of responsible sustainability, listen to the Bevel podcast on our website or any of the popular streaming platforms.

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online extra

Reapproaching the Workplace Optimizing Spaces Based on Changing Employee Needs

By Darby Gracey

With flexible design strategies, solutions that support COVID-19 safety needs can be easy, quick and low-cost. Similarly, this allows for future revisions and refreshes for the space as design trends and needs evolve. This dovetails into the heightened need for adaptability in buildings and the spaces within them, which supports the capacity to accommodate substantial change over the lifetime of a building in response to social, economic and ergonomical environments.

In March 2020, we collectively saw offices empty overnight as the impact of the coronavirus continued to rapidly expand globally.

The months that followed were Zoom and Teams-centric as we felt the large-scale shift to remote work. With this came a lot of questions surrounding Zoom fatigue, setting up an at-home workspace, over-bonding with your pets and more.

While we grappled with and adapted to working-from-home, a few key lessons about the future of work and our workplaces became apparent. First, employees are productive at home. They enjoy having the added level of flexibility in their work schedules and not having to commute daily. The second realization is the reason employees will return to the workplace: each other. People miss collaborating and connecting with their peers in a face-to-face environment.

Designing for Resiliency in Action Planning a space for resiliency involves understanding where an organization is in the present moment and then building from its unique culture, budget and vision to create a space that responds to any reality while understanding the needs and safety of occupants.

For example, Interface recently undertook a redesign of its global headquarters, dubbed Base Camp by employees, in response to changing needs from the space. Opened in 2018, it was designed as a community gathering place and a showcase of workplace design innovation. When it emptied in March 2020, Interface began to evaluate the best way to reopen the office. Like almost every organization across North America, this is not something the company planned for when it entered 2020, meaning it did not anticipate the need for budget and resources to accommodate drastic changes.

As companies begin to ideate what a large-scale return to the office might look like and how they will optimize their workplace with changing needs in mind, it’s critical to understand how employees will use the space to ensure that it addresses safety concerns while also allowing for meaningful interaction.

Taking a New Approach to Workplace Design According to a recent Twingate study, 94 per cent of employees miss aspects of their company’s workplace. Of this, 41 per cent said they missed face-to-face meetings the most, and 35 per cent miss collaborating with others. But, as revealed in an internal Interface survey, employees are still wary about returning to the office. With the COVID-19 vaccine rollout becoming more widespread, it’s critical that organizations begin to rethink their spaces with collaboration and safety needs top of mind.

As the company began to rethink its space, Interface surveyed its employees to better understand their current attitudes and needs to feel safe coming back, and, similar to the Twingate study, found that one of the key drivers in returning to the office would be to connect face-to-face with peers and friends once again. As such, the new design centered on updates in three key areas: Optimize Spaces for Design, Technology and Employee Behaviours.

At the same time, it’s important we don’t let COVID-19 redesign our spaces for us. So, how can organizations balance competing needs and ideas? By using resiliency as a model. Make short-term adjustments, like physical distancing reminders, while protecting the long-term objectives of the space. Flexible and adaptable design solutions are the answer to achieving this.

To effectively make the furniture and design adjustments, Interface knew it was critical that employee behaviour and technology evolve as well, especially while social distancing remains necessary. With these three areas of the redesign working in tandem, Interface ensured that the integrity of Base Camp’s design remained intact, allowing for minimal adjustments to support a largescale return to the global headquarters.

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adopting a flexible telecommuting policy; choosing which space they will work on and reserving a socially-distanced workstation; adhering to social distancing and COVID-19 protocol needs; and so on.

To modify the design of Base Camp for short and long-term needs, Interface utilized modular flooring as a measurement tool to indicate distance throughout the building. The flooring products provide subtle and artful cues, like colour or texture changes, for social distancing, traffic patterns and zones within the space. At the same time, furniture was rearranged or replaced to create more open-air collaborative spaces from previously underutilized areas identified before COVID-19.

The recent redesign process aims to serve as a case study for other organizations beginning to evaluate the current state of their workspaces and how to optimize space for the return of employees. Connection and collaboration are critical to consider, along with the current safety and distancing measures associated with COVID-19.

Prior to approaching a redesign, it is paramount that companies take stock of their spaces and what the long-term objectives are, how the workplace aligns with their culture, and how it supports employee needs. From here, they can evaluate how best to update the space, allowing it to evolve with their company in the short and long-term.

One of Interface’s most noteworthy technological updates includes the introduction of a desk reservation system. Ensuring a minimum distance between employees returning to the building gives employees the comfort of knowing where they will sit when they opt to return. In addition, Interface expanded the use of its outdoor space to support employee productivity, resulting in another technology priority: improve the Wi-Fi on the fourth-floor patio to provide another large space for employees to maintain productivity and interact.

As Interface’s Global Director of Worklife and Workplace Strategy, Darby Gracey works to provide and maintain healthy, functional, innovative, and

Design and technology updates require office protocol changes to promote a “we-focused” practice of responsible behaviours and routines.

Employee behavioural adjustments create a safe, positive space for teams while promoting a culture of collaboration. The changes include

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collaborative environments for the well-being of employees and customers in all Interface work locations globally. Darby’s responsibilities include overseeing our global headquarters and she has played an integral role in reimagining the

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Midtown Atlanta space to be a high-design, post-pandemic office of the future.

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Lost Opportunities The growing F-waste issue and how to handle it.

By Richard Beaumont

Over 10 million tons of “F-waste,” or furniture waste, ends up in landfills annually in Canada and the United States, representing an exorbitant amount of environmentally harmful trash that people might not realize is even there. A functioning office cubicle represents anywhere between 300 to 700 pounds of waste, the majority of that is in the form of ferrous metal, wood, and plastic. The typical office task chair contains dozens of different materials and chemicals by itself.

mentality. However, anyone who has moved knows that you can’t bring everything with you, and when you have the funds of a Silicon Valley unicorn, it’s a safe bet that you’re not bringing that gently used office furniture across country.

Office closures and consolidations like this should be expected to continue, and 2021 is the first year we are seeing this accelerated trend take hold. Now is the time for these organizations to devise a plan on what to do with that F-waste. While there’s no one-sizefits-all solution, a holistic approach that considers the bottom line, environment, and community where employees live and work is a great place to start.

Given the confluence of recent events, the F-waste stream, which was ubiquitous before the pandemic, has grown substantially. The time away from the traditional in-office routine has led many companies to re-evaluate their situation, leading to an increase in office relocations, consolidations, virtualization, de-densification and downsizing.

A Sustainable Solution

There is no telling what the future of the office will be, but a recalibration of office culture has certainly taken place in response to COVID-19. For example, in 2019 downtown Toronto’s office vacancy rate was the lowest in North America at 2.6 per cent, but then the amount of office sublease space on the market quadrupled during 2020 to almost 2.5 million square feet. The city government in Toronto plans to substantially cut its office locations and extend more flexible working arrangements to its employees, cutting its properties from 55 to 15, further illustrating the trend that office space isn’t in high demand at the moment.

In Manhattan, the North American city with the most office space, it is estimated that sublease space grew to 16.1 million square feet by the end of the third quarter of 2020, up 46.8 per cent from Q1. The San Francisco Bay Area has been affected even more drastically, with sublease space increasing by 148 per cent through September 2020, and as a result Silicon Valley is getting a makeover during this office space exodus. Giant companies such as Oracle, Tesla, and Palantir are moving out of state in large numbers for a multitude of reasons.

The culture of most, if not all, big tech workforces is a “leave no trace” CANADIAN INTERIORS 3/4 2021

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A typical office decommission has movers junk your office assets. It is unimaginative, lazy, and there is not much to it. However easy that may be, there is something being left on the proverbial table — financially and ethically — by tossing everything away. In response to this, companies striving to do better for themselves and the world around them are increasingly pursuing sustainable office decommissions, focusing on the recycling, resale, and reuse of office assets.

Based on the principles of the circular economy, a decommission begins by evaluating each asset and identifying its proper place in the system. The highest value furniture is resold, bringing direct value back to the company and continuing the lifecycle of that furniture and equipment. This provides an attractive, environmentally friendly alternative to a trip to the landfill, especially when considering the tipping fees that approach would incur.

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Reuse, or donation, accounts for a major portion of a decommission. This sees lightly used furniture that is still useful donated to a non-profit in need of an upgrade. Not only does this directly help a local organization that needs the support, but it is also a boon to a

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“It’s a safe bet that you’re not bringing that gently used office furniture across country.”

Below reBOOT Canada is a registered charity, with the primary purpose of making the internet and digital tools accessible to under-served communities and individuals across Canada. They were recipients of a donation from a sustainable decommission facilitated by Green Standards, and were able to upgrade their network, audio and video display equipment, allowing their volunteer and store staff trainees a chance to expand their expertise in the features and functionality of commercial a/v equipment. Bottom C.R. Marchant Middle School in Toronto were recipients of a donation from a sustainable decommission facilitated by Green Standards, which allowed them to allocate resources to purchase technology for virtual learning during the pandemic.

company’s CSR efforts. Helping a deserving organization upgrade their built environment at no cost is the most rewarding part of the process, and provides a huge impact on both the environment and the community.

The final piece of the puzzle is recycling. While donations are important as far as impact on the communities they have, and reselling goes a long way in offsetting other costs, recycling is just as important for its positive impact on the environmental footprint of the project. This category represents the items that aren’t up to the quality of those destined for donation and resale and are often made up of treated wood and metal. Specialized recycling can generate returns on investment, process a variety of items, and reintroduce materials back into the manufacturing process.

With more and more offices closing across the world, a sustainable office decommission like this allows businesses to improve their triple bottom line, and responsibly allocate their no-longer needed office assets in a way that will help their revenue, the environment, and their local communities.

Richard Beaumont is co-founder of Green Standards, a Toronto-based firm committed to helping organizations reduce waste and benefit communities across North America. An advocate for Cradle-to-Cradle design and the circular economy, they have diverted 75,000 tons of office furniture, equipment, and supplies from landfills and donated over $32 million in surplus assets to over 5,500 non-profits.

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Image courtesy of Jamie Wolfond Studio

over & out

Asking About Being Asked

Jamie Wolfond opens himself up in a new programming idea

by DesignTO.

As told to Peter Sobchak

Like all of us forced to adapt to pandemic-related separation protocols, DesignTO had to get creative with programming for its January 2021 festival. One such example was Ask Me Anything, an online initiative aiming to foster learning about the design process by creating a virtual conduit between a designer and the public. Torontobased Jamie Wolfond gamefully stepped in as the first guest, holding a dozen 30-minute private online meetings over two days. Jamie Wolfond Studio opened in 2013, creating products for Wolfond’s consumer brand, Good Thing. In 2018, Wolfond sold Good Thing, and has since focused entirely on the Studio.

JW: We don’t have a lot of trade secrets here. A handful of participants had questions about my experience running my own design brand, which I did from 2014 to 2018, and the rest were interested in comparing experiences as an independent designer or finding out more about how the studio operates currently.

As far as comfort level, were there any surprising topics you really liked talking about; and conversely, any you had to sidestep or weren’t comfortable discussing?

JW: As you might imagine, I’m more comfortable talking about the career I transitioned to rather than the one I transitioned from. A lot of young designers admired my brand, and it can be a little tricky to find a positive way to describe an experience that I don’t ultimately remember very much positivity.

What was the breakdown of people you engaged with, in terms of professional designers versus members of the public generally interested in design?

JW: I spoke with a fair number of students, several recent graduates and one or two members of the general public.

Overall, what did the participants seem most interested in asking you about? Was it general discussions about your creative process, or very specific ones like the types of materials or tools you use (almost like digging for trade secrets)?

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This program was a first for DesignTO, so a bit of an experiment I presume. Once it was all over, was it beneficial for you?

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JW: It was a nice way to spend a few afternoons. I really wasn’t looking to get anything out of it myself. I just wanted to make myself available as a resource to anyone who wanted to chat.

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Design: Corgan, Dallas, TX Logo feature wall with white oak veneer, edge painted details and LED lighting

design / develop / deliver

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eurOptimum.com

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DEFINE SPACE WITH A WARM LINEAR RHYTHM Linear design, interpreted here with WoodWorks® ceiling panels, brings a sense of order along with warmth to this space. And as part of the CleanAssure™ portfolio, these panels also meet the latest CDC cleaning criteria. Look to Armstrong for the broadest range of standard and custom design choices, as well as our new 24/7 Defend™ portfolio, including ceilings that help to contain and clean the air. Explore all the possibilities at armstrongceilings.com/healthyspaces and armstrongceilings.com/woodworks

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